Getting responsible?

Mostly a shallow tryst of world leaders as usual, this year’s G8 summit did bring about some surprising commitments on emissions reduction and egalitarian growth

Lars Meyer Berlin

Usually, G8 summits are smiled at as mere annual get-togethers of the rich and powerful that produce nothing but a few cosy photo ops and some thoroughly refurbished platitudes. Yet, the agenda drawn up ahead of last month's summit indicated that Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, and host of the eight leaders of the world's major economies and long-standing democracies, was out for at least a few tangible results.

Outside a specially built perimeter fence around the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, countless camps of mostly peaceful protesters, a huge contingent of some 16,000 police, and a concert starring rockers-turned-activists Bono and Bob Geldof set to music their claim for more debt relief for African countries. Inside, the G8 leaders welcomed newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, bid farewell to ceding British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and sat down to discuss a colourful bundle of some of the most pressing global issues, actually agreeing on a few sturdy commitments.

Collectively content with the development of the global economy (which grew at its fastest pace in over 30 years in 2006) and a further narrowing of the gap between developed and emerging nations (emerging economies' average GDP growth of some 7.5 per cent is likely to outpace that of the developed world by more than 5 per cent this year), Merkel and her peers reaffirmed their commitment to “fairness” of globalisation. For this purpose, the German presidency had for the first time invited leaders of major emerging economies to the summit. Together, the G8, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa launched the 'Heiligendamm Process', a two-year dialogue aimed at working out common positions on four key drivers for smoothing out global imbalances: cutting back protectionism toward cross-border investment, promoting innovation while protecting intellectual property rights, improving energy efficiency and technology cooperation and pursuing a more uniform development policy, including the liberation of trade under the Doha Development Round.

A laudable but still insufficient consensus was reached on the second big agenda: combating climate change. Cleaving through nebulous reaffirmations of the need for 'urgent and concerted action' by all major economies to tackle global warming, one could spot a change at least in the political climate. For the first time, US President George W Bush agreed to “seriously consider” following Canada, the European Union and Japan in halving or at least setting a fixed goal for reducing his country's emissions of greenhouse gases. This is a concession which the US had previously refused to make. Although there won't be any real progress unless the US actually takes action, the commitment is an important step on what has been an extraordinarily bumpy road.

Merkel had intentionally put the development of the African continent on the agenda. In addition to committing to support efforts to build peace and security in the region, encourage investment and improve governance, the G8 pledged $60 billion to aid the goal of providing universal access to quality health services for all Africans. While this pledge - intended mainly for the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and half of which is borne by the US - was welcomed as a reaffirmation of the developed world's commitment to the continent, NGOs criticised the lack of a timeline for the disbursement of funds, and that it comprises hardly and “fresh money”.

What should be perceived as a positive signal is that the issues and commitments at the summit  are a reflection of a sound awareness among the rich world that their benefits from globalisation go hand in hand with an ever increasing responsibility to tackle the global imbalances that come with the further integration of the world economy. As most of Africa is missing out on the West's prosperity and the growth rates of China, India, Brazil or Russia, the continent breeds a particularly destructive mixture of poverty, despair and rugged regimes that receives global attention only where it has already sparked humanitarian catastrophes like those in Darfur or Somalia. Against this background, the summit theme, 'Growth and Responsibility', will remain as a memorial to the opportunities and the many obligations brought about by our globalised world.